The condition of children under Romania’s Child Protection System

On paper, Romania’s Child Protection System offers a child temporary intervention until they are reintegrated into their biological family, or placed in an adoptive family. In reality, this “temporary intervention” usually lasts until they become an adult. For these children, who cannot be reintegrated into their biological family, their path to adoption is made especially difficult by exaggerated laws, described in this report.

In recent years some of Romania’s adoption laws have been improved; but these improvements are usually ignored at the local level and we suspect that priority may be given to keeping children in the system based on the miniscule rate of adoptability for institutionalized children (only 1.5%).